What’s up, David Wells here again with another installment of the Independent Run Down. This week’s edition is a bit different from past weeks because instead of spotlighting just one indy promotion, I will spotlight several promotions and run down the matches which will be featured on their upcoming shows.
The first promotion I will be talking about is PWG. On July 6th, PWG will be celebrating it’s 5th anniversary in a big way. The show is entitled Life During Warfare and will feature the final chapter in the Chris Hero & Human Tornado feud in a violent and bloody way. The match will be contested under Guerrilla Warfare rules inside an unforgiving Steel Cage. If that’s not enough, the match will also be contested for the PWG World Championship. Can Hero obtain revenge on Tornado and capture the PWG World Title at the same time or will Tornado be able to allude Hero and put him in his rear view mirror? If you’re in the Reseda or Southern California area, there is no reason for you to miss this brutal final chapter.
If the Hero/Tornado match isn’t enough to make you attend, then maybe these next few matches will. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans will defend their newly won PWG Tag Team Championships against the dynamic duo of Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black. This match could easily go down as one of the best tag team matches in PWG history. Next, we have the major return of Chris Bosh to professional wrestling. Bosh walked away from wrestling quietly and is now back for what appears to be one night only against Scorpio Sky. Will Bosh be back following this match? Nobody knows so don’t miss what could be Bosh last match in PWG.
Also, don’t forget that you can pre-order PWG’s DDT 4 2008 tournament and their nationally distributed 3-disc DVD entitled PWG Sells Out. Both these items can be pre-ordered at Highspots.com or ProWrestlingGuerrilla.com.
Next, Chikara returns to action on July 13th with a show entitled Tragedy and Triumph. The show will feature nine action packed match including a huge grudge match between Mike Quackenbush and Shane Storm. This match stems from last year when Chris Hero used the Chikara Special (a hold which was used by Chikara’s technicos to defeat Hero on several occasions). Quack was stunned and sent his student, Time Donst to infiltrate the rudos to find out who taught them the hold. During the Young Lions Cup VI weekend, it was revealed that Shane Storm had taught the rudos the hold and now Quack is out for revenge.
In addition to that huge main event level match, there is also Claudio Castagnoli against Brodie Lee in a No DQ match, a first time ever meeting between Eddie Kingston and Lince Dorado, the battle of the 2007 and 2008 Rey de Voladores winners (Chuck Taylor vs. Incognito), and Incoherence will defend the Campeonatos de Parejas against Mitch Ryder and Shayne Hawk. If you’re in the Philadelphia area or live in Philadelphia, be sure to check this show out at the old ECW arena on July 13th. Also, don’t forget to check out SmartMarkVideo.com for all the latest Chikara DVD releases. It shouldn’t be too much longer before Young Lions Cup VI is released onto DVD.
Coming up on July 19th, FIP returns to action with a huge main event match. Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens will take their brutal and bloody feud to a new level. Roderick Strong will defend his FIP World Championship in a Dog Collar Match against Stevens. These two have battled in Last Man Standing and Fight Without Honor matches. They’ve also engaged in other brutal contests so this match will be no different. Also, in tag team action, the YRR of Jason Blade and Kenny King will defend the FIP Tag Team Championships against the team of Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black in a 2 out of 3 Falls match. Yes, folks, Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black have the chance to be hold tag gold in three separate promotions by the end of July (ROH, PWG, and FIP). So, if you’re in the Crystal River area, be sure to go check out the brutality of Strong/Stevens. Don’t forget to check out ROHWrestling.com and FullImpactPro.com for all the latest FIP DVD releases.
Next, IWA-MS returns to action in July on the 6th and 26th. The event on the 6th is entitled Summertime Black & Blues and will be held in Joliet, IL while the event on the 25th will be held in Sellersburg, IN. Right now, these events are newly announced so not many matches have been announced yet but Summertime Black & Blues has two women’s matches announced. Firstly, we have Mickie Knuckles and Sara Del Ray in a 30-minute Iron Woman match which will the rubber match between the two. Knuckles won their first meeting back at Volcano Girls 2 and Del Ray won the second meeting at King of the Death Matches Night 1. The rivalry between these two has grown over the months and this will surely be an intense 30 minute battle. Then, we have Daizee Haze defending the IWA-MS Women’s Championship against Rachel Summerlynn. I believe it’s fair to say that the winner of Knuckles/Del Ray will become the number one contender and receive the winner of Haze/Summerlynn. Finally, Chuck Taylor will try and capture the IWA-MS Heavyweight Championship for a third time as he challenges the man who beat him for the title at King of the Death Matches Night 1, Dingo.
Now, to take a small look into the future, Mid South also has a show entitled Kings of the Crimson Mask scheduled for August 2nd in Joliet, IL and has a Dog Collar Match between Dingo and Jaysin Strife booked along with a TLC Match pitting Jason Hades against Jayson Quick. More matches will be announced for the event in the coming weeks. Then, we have what I consider to be IWA-MS’ biggest weekend of the year and that’s the TPI weekend which will be held in Joliet, IL on September 26th & 27th. So far 16 names have been announced and they including the likes of Chris Hero, Mike Quackenbush, Claudio Castagnoli, Roderick Strong, Tyler Black, and Jimmy Jacobs.
If you’re looking to purchase IWA-MS DVDs then head over to SmartMarkVideo.com where you can find all you IWA-MS DVDs needs including the newly released Extreme Intentions. Or you can head over to the IWA-MS message board and take advantage of Ian Rotten’s deal of the week which is 10 DVDs of your choosing for just $100 (plus $5 shipping) or if you would like to pre-order last weekend’s Royal Weekend of Death shows, you can. For more details on each of those sales, head over to the IWA-MS message board which can be reached via iwamidsouthwrestling.com.
Shimmer Women Athletes returns to action in Berwyn, IL on July 5th with the volume 19 and 20 tapings. No official line up has been announced at this time but for more information head over to ShimmerWrestling.com. Also, don’t forget to head over to ROHWrestling.com for all your Shimmer DVD needs which includes the newly released volume 17 and 18 DVDs.
On a closing note, I’d like to issue congratulations to Fire Ant for winning Chikara’s Young Lions Cup. Also, congratulations go out to Devon Moore for winning IWA-MS’ King of the Death Matches and Rebecca Payne for winning IWA-MS’ Queen of the Death matches.
Well that about wraps things up for this week’s edition of the Run Down. Thanks for reading and your feedback is appreciated. Stay tuned next week for further updates on the shows mentioned this week and more.
